regime change

just read How To Change Ugly Regimes by Fareed Zakaria. i wonder, too, about belarus... all this talk coming out of Condi Rice about how belarus should be next to fall, does that mean the USA is going to try to isolate belarus more? and the EU isolate them more too? seems to have been the trend there lately. but i like fareed's point (oh why do i love everything that this man says), that

To change a regime, short of waging war, you have to shift the balance of power between the state and society. Society needs to be empowered. It is civil society—private business, media, civic associations, nongovernmental organizations—that can create an atmosphere which forces change in a country.

it's my hope that the folks from here who are over there doing good things are strengthening civil society in their own small (or not so small) ways.